polurls / blue

the political blog aggregator for progressives

Despite its central role on the Democratic debate stage in Houston, Medicare for All remains fuzzy in one key respect: The price tag. At one point, former Vice President Joe Biden said it would cost $30 trillion. And Sen. Bernie Sanders, author of the bill, didn’t argue. "Joe said that Medicare for All would cost over $30 trillion," Sanders said. "Status quo, over 10 years, will be $50 trillion." Sanders said the net savings would be "substantial." The reality is that predicting the cost of Medicare for All is a tricky business. There is no debate that federal spending on ... >>More

Unity was in the air on Thursday, as a trimmed-down cast of 10 Democratic presidential candidates met on the debate stage again and nodded to the stakes: another four years of President Donald Trump. And then the opening statements concluded. The first question plunged the candidates into another debate about the merits and missteps of a "Medicare for All" plan. It was a fitting set-up for the marquee match-up of this third Democratic presidential debate, between former Vice President Joe Biden — whose health care proposal includes a government-run public option insurance plan — and Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, ... >>More

During the third Democratic primary debate, Sen. Cory Booker challenged other candidates to join him in promising clemency for people who have been "unjustly incarcerated." Booker took aim at what he described as racial inequalities in the criminal justice system, noting that the war on drugs has unfairly targeted minority populations. "We can specifically and demonstrably now show that there are 17,000 people unjustly incarcerated in America," Booker said. "All of us should come forward and say when we are president of the United States, when I am president of the United States, we will release them." See Figure 1 ... >>More

The showdown between the moderate and progressive wings of the Democratic Party — and frontrunners Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren — never really reached a boil, as the Democratic candidates for president trained their harshest jabs for President Donald Trump. But policy differences at the third Democratic presidential debate did become more clear, particularly on the issue of health care. PolitiFact analyzed several statements made by the candidates on the debate stage at Houston’s Texas Southern University. See Figure 1 on PolitiFact.com Beto O'Rourke and Julián Castro on Sept. 12, 2019, during a Democratic presidential primary debate in Houston. ... >>More

During the dog days of August — as commentators were already wondering whether the nearly decade-long economic recovery was on its last legs — government number-crunchers made an announcement that jolted economists. The Bureau of Labor Statistics announced that, according to preliminary data, 501,000 fewer jobs had been created between March 2018 to March 2019 than officials had initially estimated. No one lost their job over it, because adjusting the numbers isn’t unusual — in fact, the government does it routinely. Sometimes the numbers go up, and sometimes they go down. In this case, the government realized that it had been ... >>More

Making a point about Defense Department waste, Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang related a secondhand story about a Navy fighter pilot who said that airmen routinely dumped fuel into the Pacific Ocean at the end of the fiscal year as a way to preserve the following year's fuel budget. But the story doesn't add up.

A meme circulating on Facebook wrongly attributes a statement about guns to former President Ronald Reagan. The quote is actually from Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, co-authors of The Communist Manifesto.

The post Marx, Engels Quote Falsely Attributed to Reagan appeared first on FactCheck.org.

A social media meme inaccurately claims that Walmart will no longer sell rifles. Walmart stopped selling “military-style rifles such as the AR-15,” in 2015, and has announced it will no longer sell ammunition for "military-style weapons." It still sells “long guns for hunting and sport shooting.”

The post Meme Misleads on Walmart Gun Sales appeared first on FactCheck.org.

Twice in the last five weeks, Joe Biden has claimed that despite voting to authorize military force against Iraq in 2002, he opposed the Iraq war from "the moment" it began. That's not accurate, and Biden now says he misspoke.

In today’s episode, Cliff and I talk about #SharpieGate — Trump sextupling down on his claim that Hurricane Dorian was expected to hit Alabama, when it wasn’t — and why the story is a great foil for beating Trump in 2020. We also discuss GOP Rep. Dan Crenshaw’s creepy views on guns and domestic violence. Below is a […]

The post Why #SharpieGate could spell trouble for Trump in 2020 appeared first on AMERICAblog News.

Today’s UnPresidented podcast is mostly about guns, starting with Meghan McCain’s horrific comments about how gun owners will resort to violence if we dare ban their assault weapons, only going to prove that those gun owners are unworthy of owning any guns at all. We also talk about GOP Congressman Dan Crenshaw thinking it’s okay […]

The post Meghan McCain says gun owners will resort to violence to stop an assault weapons ban appeared first on AMERICAblog News.

In today’s UnPresidented Podcast, below, Cliff and I focus most of our discussion on the Dept. of Justice Inspector General report about James Comey having broken FBI rules, but not the law, when he informed the country that Donald Trump was a traitorous felon. We also talk about General Mattis pulling a Mueller and not […]

The post Comey broke a rule, Trump broke the law appeared first on AMERICAblog News.

After 2016, it’s understandable that Democrats are wary of polls predicting victory against Trump next year. Also, we’ve got another 15 months to election day, and anything can happen between now and then. Having said all of that, the new Quinnipiac poll is just God-awful news for Trump, and it’s not the kind of thing […]

The post New poll is just AWFUL for Trump; Voter concern about the economy grows appeared first on AMERICAblog News.

Democratic poll expert Rachel Bitecofer joins our podcast again to talk about the 2020 election, Joe Walsh’s candidacy (and why it matters), the issues Democrats should focus on (from the economy to overall anti-Trump angst), and more. As always, an enjoyable and high-info discussion that I know you’ll enjoy. This is one of our free […]

Today’s episode is devoted to the mania that is Donald Trump. We got rolling with a discussion of the Greenland meltdown, and kind of just took off from there, especially after, mid-show, Trump decided to compare the Federal Reserve chair to the communist dictator of China, and then “hereby ordered” American companies to leave China […]

The post Trump hereby orders you to laugh appeared first on AMERICAblog News.

Obama is draping the banner of change over the NSA status quo. Bulk surveillance that caused such outrage will remain in place

In response to political scandal and public outrage, official Washington repeatedly uses the same well-worn tactic. It is the one that has been hauled out over decades in response to many of America's most significant political scandals. Predictably, it is the same one that shaped President Obama's much-heralded Friday speech to announce his proposals for "reforming" the National Security Agency in the wake of seven months of intense worldwide controversy.

The crux of this tactic is that US political leaders pretend to validate and even channel public anger by acknowledging that there are "serious questions that have been raised". They vow changes to fix the system and ensure these problems never happen again. And they then set out, with their actions, to do exactly the opposite ...

Reporting the NSA story hasn't been easy, but it's always been fulfilling. It's what journalism at its crux is about, and we must protect that

As many of you know, I'm leaving the Guardian in order to work with Pierre Omidyar, Laura Poitras, Jeremy Scahill and soon-to-be-identified others on building a new media organization. As I said when thisnews was reported a couple of weeks ago, leaving the Guardian was not an easy choice, but this was a dream opportunity that was impossible to decline.

We do not yet have an exact launch date for the new outlet, but rest assured: I'm not going to disappear for months or anything like that. The new site will be up and running reasonably soon.

British Prime Minister David Cameron said on Monday his government was likely to act to stop newspapers publishing what he called damaging ...

With General Alexander calling for NSA reporting to be halted, US and UK credibility as guardians of press freedom is crushed

The most under-discussed aspect of the NSA story has long been its international scope. That all changed this week as both Germany and France exploded with anger over new revelations about pervasive NSA surveillance on their population and democratically elected leaders.

As was true for Brazil previously, reports about surveillance aimed at leaders are receiving most of the media attention, but what really originally drove the story there were revelations that the NSA is bulk-spying on millions and millions of innocent citizens in all of those nations. The favorite cry of US government apologists -–everyone spies! – falls impotent in the face of this sort of ubiquitous, suspicionless spying that is the sole province of the US and its four English-speaking surveillance allies (the UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand ...

'If MI5 warns that this is not in the public interest who am I to disbelieve them?', says the former editor of The Independent

Like many people, I've spent years writing and speaking about the lethal power-subservient pathologies plaguing establishment journalism in the west. But this morning, I feel a bit like all of that was wasted time and energy, because this new column by career British journalist Chris Blackhurst - an executive with and, until a few months ago, the editor of the UK daily calling itself "The Independent" - contains a headline that says everything that needs to be said about the sickly state of establishment journalism:

If the security services insist something is contrary to the public interest, and might harm their operations, who am I (despite my grounding from Watergate onwards) to disbelieve them?"

Obama's anti-press measures 'are the most aggressive I've seen since the Nixon administration'

(updated below)

It's hardly news that the Obama administration is intensely and, in many respects, unprecedentedly hostile toward the news-gathering process. Even the most Obama-friendly journals have warned of what they call "Obama's war on whistleblowers". James Goodale, the former general counsel of the New York Times during its epic fights with the Nixon administration, recently observed that "President Obama wants to criminalize the reporting of national security information" and added: "President Obama will surely pass President Richard Nixon as the worst president ever on issues of national security and press freedom."

Six government employees, plus two contractors including Edward Snowden, have been subjects of felony criminal prosecutions since 2009 under the 1917 Espionage Act, accused of leaking classified information to the press—compared with a total of three such prosecutions in all ...

The National Security Agency has made repeated attempts to develop attacks against people using Tor, a popular tool designed to protect online anonymity, despite the fact the software is primarily funded and promoted by the US government itself.

Top-secret NSA documents, disclosed by whistleblower Edward Snowden, reveal that the agency's current successes against Tor rely on identifying users and then attacking vulnerable software on their computers. One technique developed by the agency targeted the Firefox web browser used with Tor, giving the agency full ...

The post was originally published at Ongoing History Of Protest Songs. “Warning! The following video contains content that some viewers may not find disturbing. That’s pretty fucked up.” The following quote was part of a social media teaser for the new video for “Pop Goes The Weapon” the latest single

The post Protest Song Of The Week: ‘Pop Goes The Weapon’ By Prophets Of Rage appeared first on Shadowproof.

In a key victory for American Muslims, a federal court in the Eastern District of Virginia ruled that the terrorism watchlist fails to provide due process and therefore violates the United States Constitution. Judge Anthony Trenga acknowledged the “administrative process” used to place a person in the Terrorist Screening Database

The post American Muslims Claim Victory In Challenging And Exposing Unconstitutional Terrorism Watchlist appeared first on Shadowproof.

Several workers recently filed equal employment opportunity complaints against Verizon, accusing their employer of racial discrimination and ignoring or retaliating against them for making allegations. Latasha French has worked at a call center in Verizon’ corporate office in Irving, Texas for over 17 years. She recently filed an Equal Employment

The post Verizon Workers File Federal Complaints Against Alleged Racist Workplace Culture appeared first on Shadowproof.

TODD ALLBAUGH: I've been a Republican for a long time. It was at that moment, Chris, in that room in the senate Republican caucus when I heard people, a Party I had fought for for over 30 years of my life, actually giddy and happy and talking about how we can take people's Constitutional rights away, or at least impede them, in order to hang onto power.

[...]

Now, you have a group of people in the state legislature, particularly in the senate Republican caucus, who want to impede peoples' voting rights. That's the point where I said "I can't do it anymore." I can't be a Republican, I can't keep going to caucuses because this Party no longer represents me and what I believe in.

CHRIS HAYES (HOST): Let me get your reaction first to something Roger Stone said. Now, he's not officially part of the campaign at all. In fact he left it early on. He is an ally of Donald Trump. This was his strategy for persuading unbound delegates. Take a listen.

[...]

What do you think of that idea?

BARRY BENNETT: Probably not a very good idea, but I admire the passion.

HAYES: Okay. Would you send a message to supporters, we don't want you going to the hotel rooms of unbound delegates to, quote, persuade them about who they should vote for?

BENNETT: We've talked to our delegates regularly as they get appointed across the country so I don't think there's much chance of that happening.

BILL O'REILLY (HOST): The disadvantage for Mr. Cruz is the New York values debate. You will remember that in January, the senator said this.

[...]

O'REILLY: Now, the truth is, Cruz is right, New York City values are very left wing. But the rest of the state lines up fairly conservative, although not at the level of Senator Cruz. However, as in any state, New Yorkers are sensitive folks, look at me. So the senator has to overcome his initial New York values comments, valid or not. Now I, your humble correspondent, am a born and raised New Yorker, but I have lived all over the country, Dallas, Denver, Portland, Oregon, Boston and Miami. I can tell you New York is a different kind of a place, especially because there are nearly 20 million people in the ...

The Washington Post Fact Checker clarified an article written by other Post reporters whose headline falsely suggested that Hillary Clinton called Bernie Sanders unqualified to be president. Before the Fact Checker had weighed in, the misrepresentation spread to other outlets, and Sanders reportedly cited it as justification for questioning Clinton's credentials in response.

Wash. Post: Clinton "Questioned" Sanders' Qualifications Following His NY Daily News Interview. An April 6 Washington Post article reported in its headline and lead that Hillary Clinton had questioned whether her rival Bernie Sanders "is qualified to be president" during an April 6 appearance on MSNBC's Morning Joe. During the segment, Clinton said Sanders may not have "done his homework" for his interview with the New York Daily News editorial board, which she said "raise[s] a lot of questions" about whether he ...

ERIC BOLLING (CO-HOST): Socialism is spreading across America, starting from California. Ten to fifteen -- Upping to $10 to $15 minimum wage is the first way. Remember Seattle tried that. Restaurant owners flocked away from Seattle. That's failing -- in the process of failing in Seattle. California wants to do it now too, knock yourself out. Free everything. Free health care, free tuition. You don't even have to be a citizen of California or the United States to get most of the free things now too. You can just come across the border and get it. It's awful. They're not going to -- California's not going to be able to pay for it. Business aren't going to be able to pay for all these--

On April 5, the Center For Medical Progress (CMP) released its 14th deceptive video -- this one featuring sections of footage from the first hearing of Congress' Select Panel on Infant Lives, which Republicans established in response to CMP's baseless allegations against Planned Parenthood. This latest video attacks Planned Parenthood's patient consent process and demonstrates the dangerous feedback loop operating between CMP and anti-choice lawmakers on the select panel.

Latest Video Claims Planned Parenthood Gains Women's Consent To Donate Tissue Improperly. In this latest video, the Center for Medical Progress (CMP) used decontextualized footage from the Select Panel on Infant Lives' first hearing to allege that Planned Parenthood's consent form -- given to women when they are considering donating fetal tissue -- is misleading because it states that donated tissue ...

Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh had another allegation of sexual misconduct revealed on Saturday in a bombshell report in The New York Times. “A classmate, Max Stier, saw Mr. Kavanaugh with his pants down at a different drunken dorm party, where friends pushed his penis into the hand of...

Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Saturday he was making a “huge amount of progress” towards a Brexit deal with the EU, in an interview in which he compared Britain to the Incredible Hulk. “It’s going to take a lot of work between now and October 17” when EU leaders...

The results of a 10-month investigation into Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh by New York Times reporters Robin Pogrebin and Kate Kelly was published on Saturday. But attention was taken away from the powerful reporting after the Twitter account of The Times opinion page posted a shocking...

Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh is facing a new allegation of sexual misconduct — that the FBI reportedly knew about, but did not investigate. The new allegation was discovered during a 10-month investigation by New York Times reporters Robin Pogrebin and Kate Kelly. “During the...

The opinion page of The New York Times was blasted on Saturday for a shocking tweet about Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh. “Having a penis thrust in your face at a drunken dorm party may seem like harmless fun,” the paper’s opinion page posted on Twitter. During his...

The former president of Planned Parenthood wrote a scalding letter to the organization’s board of directors — that was obtained by The New York Times. Dr. Leana Wen was fired by the group in July. “It is deeply hypocritical,” she wrote, that Planned Parenthood, “would attempt to...

The 2013 Supreme Court decision nullifying federal "preclearance" requirements for states and local governments with a past history of discriminating against minority voters continues to have widespread repercussions as those same discriminatory states and counties methodically undertake efforts to once again make voting a more cumbersome and restricted process. A new Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights report once again seeks to quantify those acts, and once again finds that jurisdictions freed from prior preclearance requirements are shutting down their own polling places at an accelerated pace.

Updating a prior 2016 study, the Leadership Conference was now able to collect data for 757 of the 860 counties previously subject to preclearance. Those counties collectively shuttered nearly 1,700 polling places since the 2013 Shelby County vs. Holder decision; most were justified under claims of "consolidating" polling locations.

The family of Seth Rich, the murdered DNC employee whom Fox News tried to frame as the leaker of DNC emails to Wikileaks (in order to get the Russians off the hook) has had its lawsuit against Fox News reinstated thanks to a federal appeals court that reversed a prior decision dismissing it.

You may recall that last year, a federal court dismissed the Rich family’s suit, on technical grounds, in what was hardly a vindication of Fox News’ slimy, untruthful and hurtful reporting.

Today, the federal Court of Appeals reversed that decision with the result that the Rich’s case can now proceed. In its article on this reversal, Politico notes that the court seemed particularly troubled by Sean Hannity’s behavior and Fox News’ tacit acceptance:

The judges also seemed troubled that while Fox retracted [reporter Malia] Zimmerman’s reports and deleted them from the network’s ...

Joy Ann Reid and her producers put together two hours of the most incisive news commentary each week, with panels that reflect the diversity in America more than any other news show in the US. She's unafraid to put conservatives on her show and demand that they stick to facts and not filibuster with slurs or get the hell out.

After his pathetic speech in Baltimore, Reid certainly had fun at his expense with his old man rants at the wind and light bulbs. This seemed to bother the notoriously thin-skinned Trump, because he decided to launch his not-terribly-original Twitter attack on her.

Who the hell is Joy-Ann Reid? Never met her, she knows ZERO about me, has NO talent, and truly doesn’t have the “it” factor needed for success in showbiz. Had a bad reputation ...

The three Republicans challenging Donald Trump for the Presidential nomination for the 2020 election wrote an op-ed in the Washington Post arguing that the cancellation of state level primaries is a mistake - and they are right.

It is not unheard of for the incumbent party to cancel state level primaries in order to save money and negate the likelihood of the current sitting President losing the nomination to another party member. BUT that is only a viable position if their candidate is doing well and is likely to win re-election. As we can see from Trump's dwindling numbers (he is not at 38% approval) and the prospect of an economic downturn (the economy is the only thing really keeping Trump afloat), it is not a lock that he will win in 2020. So why did four states cancel their primaries? Probably fear of nasty tweets.

Earlier this week, a long, detailed, receipts-laden report dropped on Jerry Falwell Jr. and his lovely wife Becki, detailing how Falwell was using university resources for his own gain, how he bullied campus staff at Liberty University, and how he often bragged about his sexual prowess to anyone who would listen. Additionally, there were photos of Falwell and his family partying it up (with margaritas and drinks!) at a Miami nightclub, which would ordinarily be no big deal, except that Liberty U has some serious rules about dancing and drinking.

After that report came out, Reuters reported that Falwell Jr. called a student "retarded" and blasted the school's police chief as a "half-wit." Presumably he wasn't doing this while bragging about the size of his penis, but you never know, since he was reported to brag about ...

Via Tyler Cowen, here are a couple of interesting charts from Thomas Piketty about voting patterns in the US. Generally speaking, poor and working-class folks vote for Democrats, while more affluent people vote for Republicans. But 2016 was an odd outlier: There’s a big range here, but in general the richer you are the more […]

538 has some interesting charts showing who did well and who did poorly at last night’s debate. Here’s one that shows before and after from a single panel of likely voters: I suppose I’m glad to see that my instincts were mostly confirmed. Of the top-tier candidates, Warren did well and Harris did poorly. Another […]

A few days ago the inspector general for the intelligence community notified Congress of a whistleblower complaint that was both credible and a matter of “urgent concern.” Rep. Adam Schiff, the Chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, naturally asked the Director of National Intelligence to provide a copy of the complaint, as […]

In the previous post I mentioned that I was reading Elizabeth Warren’s The Two-Income Trap, which makes the point that two-earner families are unusually vulnerable to economic setbacks. Back when dinosaurs ruled the earth, if dad got laid off and money was tight, mom could temporarily pitch in by taking in laundry or whatnot. But […]

In case you’re wondering, I am now a slave to a chemical clock. A very unpredictable chemical clock. Last night, for no special reason, the Evil Dex kept me up until 4:30 and then didn’t wake me up until 9:30. That’s pretty inconvenient, though it is five hours of sleep, which isn’t too bad. I […]

More elites complaining about blogofascism people being mean to them on twitter.

For years I never really understood this but recently somebody explained it to me. I though they were all just sensitive souls, whose life of privilege had previously shielded from such things. There is that, too, of course. But it isn't simply that they're not used to hearing criticism, it's that they show up on the twitter thinking they're going to be met by adoring fans, and then they say something stupid and realize a lot of people really can't fucking stand them. But you like me, you really like me!!! nope.

I started writing a longer post, but... people are gonna have billions of bucks to say mean things about their political opponents and they're going to do it.In that contrast resides something that deserves more attention about the Biden age issue. The question isn’t merely whether Biden has the stamina for a grueling campaign, or whether Biden will be able to handle debates with Trump.

It’s also whether Biden or indeed other Democrats are prepared for the massive onslaught of absolutely brutal and distortive attacks that Trump and his propaganda apparatus will wage on this particular front — attacks that you can be certain will include all sorts of shamelessly propagandistic media manipulation and outright disinformation tactics.

Update: Here is the transcript.
The third Democratic debate will take place tonight in Houston. CNN says this is what to watch for.
CNN pints out the three leading Democratic candidates are over 70 years old? So is Donald Trump.
If the...

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Looks like Dorian will continue through Friday. It's moving close to the Carolinas.
In other news, ISIS is using cows as suicide bombers.
I finally got everything moved into my new place on Saturday (after another round of help from the...

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I know it is hard to believe but I am still moving. Every day I go back and forth from the old place to the new place and bring more Jeep-filled loads of stuff. I had the movers just do the furniture and that took four of them seven hours even...

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I am completely immersed in moving and will be until early next week. It could be a week before I'm back here, but I'll try to check on the threads a few times if I have internet.
This is an open thread, all topics welcome.

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I am simply outraged that Jeffrey Epstein died at a federal detention center in New York.
I will have a lot more to say, but for now, I will just say:
1. Jeffrey Epstein should never have been detained without bond. He was not a flight risk....

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Jimmy Aldaoud was 41 years old. He lived in the U.S. since he was 6 months old. Last month ICE deported him from Detroit to Iraq, a country he never lived in. He did not speak Arabic. He was not a Muslim, but a Chaldean Catholic.. Chaldeans are...

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Literally LOLed at the hotel internet password for the GOP retreat-> pic.twitter.com/5AACL9l6u1 — Rachael Bade (@rachaelmbade) September 12, 2019 There goes the neighborhood. https://t.co/31LVTAyuGL — David Simon (@AoDespair) September 12, 2019 An inflatable President Trump rat sits in the parking lot at the corner of Eastern Ave. and President St., in view of the Marriott […]

Schlemazel’s niece, who you may remember from comments as Laura Too, emailed me earlier today with the information about Schlemazel’s memorial service. I have permission from my aunt to share this. Mark’s memorial will be on Saturday September 28th 12:00 Skyview shelter at French Park in Plymouth, MN. Anyone who knew him is welcome to come, and […]

Elizabeth Warren is going to stay after so all the other candidates can get a selfie with her. — The Hoarse Whisperer (@HoarseWisperer) September 13, 2019 Probably a couple winners, actually — but the immediate standout has been decided… Poll: College students say Warren won third Democratic debate https://t.co/4qLD1ZLzEd — Damon Bethea ????A Proud Warren […]

I’ve been a sucker for a good audio drama ever since middle school, when my dad introduced me to the old classics. He’d bought some sort of anthology collection on tape, and took to playing it during long drives. I have a fond memory where we were driving through the mountains at night listening to Suspense […]

The Friday night news dump was unusually late this week. Adam Schiff, Chair of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, wrote a letter to Joseph Maguire, Acting Director of National Intelligence. Read it – it’s short and to the point. A whistleblower in the Intelligence Community disclosed a concern to the DNI intended for […]

It always gave me a chuckle that singer-songwriter Barry Manilow did not write his hit “I Write the Songs”, which zipped to #1 in 1976. The song was in fact composed by ex-Beach Boy Bruce Johnston, who wrote it for David Cassidy. Here’s where it gets interesting. While Cassidy released it as a single in 1975, it was originally recorded by Captain and Tennille for their 1975 album Love Will Keep Us Together (but never a single). Alas, Cassidy’s version went nowhere fast, despite his pop idol status at the time.

David Cassidy and Captain and Tennille were highly popular acts in the mid-70s. So what gives…why did Manilow’s rendition win out in popularity? Speaking in purely technical terms, is Barry Manilow a “better” singer ...

Fox is getting to be more and more like North Korean state TV every day:

A Fox News host saying that the president makes the weekend possible for us all...is the kind of thing I used to only encounter in authoritarian regimes during field research. pic.twitter.com/oNFh2NHgfu— Brian Klaas (@brianklaas) September 14, 2019

"The joint is hoppin'. There is sunshine on almost every face and our president is at the top of his game." You simply HAVE TO WATCH this edition of Dear Leader Watch. pic.twitter.com/LZm8h1vnA4— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) September 13, 2019

SEAN HANNITY (HOST): Read The Art of the Deal. Some of you in the media mob, you might discover Trump says, always be willing to walk away from a deal, even up to the last second.

House Republicans plan to run on tried-and-true issues in 2020: repealing Obamacare and reducing the national debt, even though the GOP fell short of both goals the last time the party had full control of Washington.

“The first thing we would do is make sure our debt is taken care of,” House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy told reporters during a meeting of party members in Baltimore to work on their election-year agenda.They don't really have anything else to run on. And anyway, their real agenda is licking Trump's boots as vigorously as humanly possible. The details are unimportant.

It does take some gall to run on reducing the debt after three years of Trump's free-spending on tax cuts and the military for no good reason, but really, what else do they have? I suspect ...

Beto wasn't trolling. He believes what he's saying and millions and millions of people agree with him. Someday this country is going to wake up to the fact that we don't have to put up with this lunacy and start behaving rationally. I don't know when that will happen but it has to. American children are growing up in a warzone, doing survival drills and learning how to protect themselves from weapons of war. All so that men (and the women who love them) who are suffering from extreme masculine insecurity can swagger around intimidating people.

But instead of liberals getting scared about this dweeb's hysteria at the idea of having his toys taken away, maybe the liberals should just treat it the way they treat liberal outrage. By laughing in their faces.

On Saturday, an asteroid will pass by Earth that's larger than some of the tallest buildings on the planet.

Asteroid 2000 QW7 is estimated to be between 290 meters and 650 meters in diameter, or between 951 and 2,132 feet, according to NASA. The world's tallest building is the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, which reaches 2,717 feet tall. The second tallest building is the Shanghai Tower at 2,073 feet.

The asteroid will be traveling at 14,361 miles per hour when it passes within 3,312,944 miles of Earth at 7:54 p.m. ET.Astronomers don't believe the asteroid poses any danger, but NASA's Center for Near Earth Object Studies is tracking it.I think we can all see the problem here, can't we?

The Reason I Can Never Enjoy a Good Night's Sleep Until He's Removed From Office

by tristero

Here is why:President Donald Trump’s acting national security adviser, former Reagan administration official Charles Kupperman, made an extraordinary and controversial claim in the early 1980s: nuclear conflict with the USSR was winnable and that “nuclear war is a destructive thing but still in large part a physics problem.” Kupperman’s suggestion that the U.S. could triumph in a nuclear war went against dominant theories of mutually assured destruction and ignored the long-term destabilizing effects that such hostilities would have on the planet’s health and global politics. Kupperman, appointed to his new post on Tuesday after Trump fired his John Bolton from the job, argued it was possible to win a nuclear war “in the classical sense,” and that the notion of total destruction stemming from such a ...

It's NICOLE SANDLER, back to guest host another episode of the BradCast. Brad and Desi are in Arizona dealing with a family medical emergency. Angie Coiro and I will hold down the fort until they're able to return.
The third of the Democratic Primary debates is now history. To recap, discuss and critique, I'm joined by [...]

It's NICOLE SANDLER here, guest hosting another episode of the BradCast.
My first guest is JOSHUA POTASH from SOS America 2019. I learned of his efforts to get Americans to take to the streets with mass protests, as they've successfully done in Puerto Rico and Hong Kong, in a column by Will Bunch at [...]

On today's BradCast: Questions about the results of a controversial do-over U.S. House election in North Carolina and about disturbing revelations from a secret reexamination of a wildly unsecure touchscreen voting system being deployed in Pennsylvania (and elsewhere) next year. [Audio link to show is posted below.]
At long last, NC's 9th Congressional District has held [...]

I've got to get on air for today's BradCast shortly, where I'll discuss this in a bit more detail, so please excuse this terse post. But I'd like to get this information out there, in case anyone has additional details or observations to add.
No, I have no yet been able to check with the North [...]

On today's BradCast: Is it possible? Could gun reform really be coming to the gun-loving, GOP-run, NRA-controlled state of Texas in the wake of a spate of mass shootings in the Lone Star state? Our guest today, an expert in the matter, is surprisingly optimistic. [Audio link to show follows below.]
But, first up, before we [...]

President Obama just awarded Vice-President Biden the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Though he knew Obama was going to honor him, Biden apparently didn't know he was going to receive the nation's highest civilian honor.

In November, Kevin Drum warned that liberals needed to start paying more attention to Jared Kushner.

Looks like he was right:

BREAKING: Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, will be named Senior Advisor to the President, per senior transition official. @NBCNews

— Peter Alexander (@PeterAlexander) January 9, 2017

There's a law that Congress passed after RFK was Attorney General that forbids family from serving in the Executive, but lawyers for Trump are expected to argue that as long as the President-Elect's son-in-law doesn't take a paycheck for his work in the White House his appointment would not run afoul of the prohibition.

Last May, William Johnson stepped down as a delegate for Donald Trump to the GOP national convention after Mother Jones revealed him to be the leader of the white nationalist American Freedom Party. Reluctant to draw negative attention to Trump, Johnson has largely receded from view since then—until yesterday, when the Los Angeles Times reported that Johnson's white nationalist super-PAC is funding pro-Trump radio ads set to run in more than a half dozen states.

"It is certainly to help Trump," Johnson told me. "If you look at the content of the radio ad, it promotes what Trump stands for. And every time people read these things, it helps convince them. There's been 50 years of propaganda on the other side, so it is going to take a long process to change people's opinion and this is just one step in that direction."

Roger Ailes used to be the head of Fox News but left after it was revealed that he was subjecting countless female employees to sexual harassment. The thing that got the whole thing moving was a lawsuit from former Fox & Friends host Gretchen Carlson. When Ailes officially left the company, he did so with a $40 million golden parachute.

At the IFA consumer electronics fair in Berlin last week, Sony came up launching a slimline version of its high-end smartphone, Xperia 5, as the company is exploring the ways to further strengthen its ties with its niche audience who is fond of films, music and videos. Having a screen size of 6.1 inches, OLED

Cybersecurity firm Palo Alto Networks is expecting its sales over the next three years growing at a double-digit pace and shared an outlook with healthy cash flow, as said the company. Palo Alto’s up-trending forecast came on the heels of better-than-expected profit and revenue that company had reported in fourth quarter results announced last week,

A French court handed a record penalty of 4 million euros ($4.5 million) on Amazon.com Inc for introducing clauses in its contract with third-party vendors which came to be abusing conditions for retailers that sells on its platform, reported Reuters citing a Tuesday report by French website Nextinpact. In its written comments to Reuters on

Dell Technologies Inc reported its second quarter results on Thursday beating the Wall Street profit estimates as demand for its desktop computers rose during the quarter and also company’s efforts in getting much lucrative contracts for its server business in China. In the midst of escalating trade war between the United States and China, Dell

U.S. online streaming service Netflix, in order to keep providing its services in Turkey was required to get fresh license under new online broadcasting rules, has formally applied issuance of fresh license. The government last month came amending the regulations, which further exposed the media companies to possibilities of censorship and tightened controls in future,

The antitrust panel of U.S. Senate is going to meet later this month to look into the issues that bigger tech companies such as Amazon and Google, in order to avoid competition with smaller rivals and despite to go into healthy competition with them, rather seek to buy those small companies. The hearing is scheduled

The Department of Justice inspector general is approaching the conclusion of his investigation into allegations of bias at the origins of the Russia investigation, according to a letter sent to lawmakers Friday, and has provided a draft report of its findings to the DOJ.

to be a parent is to be compromised. You pledge allegiance to justice for all, you swear that private attachments can rhyme with the public good, but when the choice comes down to your child or an abstraction - even the well-being of children you don't know - you'll betray your principles to the fierce unfairness of love.

Krystal Marie Ball is an American journalist, politician, and news talk anchor on The Hill's news program Rising with the Hill's Krystal Ball and Saagar Enjeti. She is also a businesswoman and certified public accountant.

High-profile evangelical conservative Jerry Falwell Jr., a staunch Trump supporter and president of Liberty University, wants the FBI to investigate current and former university employees for ... forwarding emails.

"Tom," said the puppy, licking its nose, "do you ever think that it's strange that we're such good friends, what with you being a human fella and me being a puppy and all?"

And Tom said, "No, puppy, I don't think it's strange. I remember my friend Liss telling me a story once about her grandmother Mil, who was a passionate jigsaw-puzzler, with hundreds of the things crookedly lining overstuffed shelves in her cellar. Mil always kept a card table with a semi-completed puzzle on its top which she would carry from room to room, so she could do her puzzles while cooking dinner, and later while watching re-runs of Fawlty Towers. Sometimes her puzzles would have an extra piece that didn't go anywhere; the puzzle would be done, but there would be this one odd piece. It was almost always a middle piece, instead ...

When I left on hiatus a few weeks ago, I had every intention of coming back after an extended break. I thought there might be a possibility the break would need to extend longer than I had anticipated, but I expected it would end at some point. That I would feel better and be able to get back to the work I love.

But it's become clear during my time away that I have reached the end of this road, and I don't want to delay having to tell you the inevitable. After nearly 15 years, exactly one-third of my life, I am moving on from Shakesville.

The thing is, I am feeling somewhat better. I have days without cluster headaches now. The incidents of vertigo have diminished a bit. My hair has stopped falling out in clumps. My infamous garbage gut is noticeably less garbagey. I'm ...

For those oh-some-pleasant holiday discussions about the latest political controversies, here's a little reference aid for one of them, The Gun Glossary: What’s a semi-automatic? What counts as an assault weapon? by Mark Joseph Stern Slate 12/17/2012.

One of my Facebook friends and one his commenters like the idea of armed guards in schools because it makes kids "feel good" to see them. It makes six-year-olds "feel good" to see a guy in a Santa Claus suit, too. But if you're an NRA True Believer, nothing is too silly an argument to repeat. As long as it changes the topic from enacting and enforcing sane gun laws. Putting armed guards in the schools - like they had at Columbine - isn't going to prevent or even much mitigate mass shootings as long as automatic and semiautomatic assault weapons are easily available with enormous clips and no ...

Somehow I listened to the presentation on Friday by the NRA's Wayne LaPierre without gaq reflexes kicking in. If you want to try it yourself, here's the whole thing, courtesy of PBS Newshour, NRA's Wayne LaPierre Calls for Armed Security in Every School 12/21/2012:

LaPierre proposes armed security guards at every school as an excuse not to have any restrictions at all on the manufacture and sale of the kinds of weapons that were not so long ago banned as "assault weapons". But this week's Facebook setting don't seem to allow it.

German cartoonist Klaus Stuttmann has a drawing (12/17/2012) of what LaPierre's ideal of a public school would be, captioned "the next thing".

Also, the Christian homeschool lobby would love to have public schools looking like this to market against. I wonder how many Christian homeschooling arrangements, which sometimes ...

"And frankly, I’m convinced that the president is unwilling to stand up to his own party on the big issues that face our country." - House Speaker John Boehner (Sabrina Siddiqui, John Boehner To Obama On Fiscal Cliff: Act On Plan B Or Get 'Serious' Huffington Post 12/20/2012

Yanis Varoufakis describes the experience of the eurozone with austerity policies, in the context of describing why the non-financial sector may not recover as fast as the financial sector (Will the real economy rebound, following Wall Street’s resuscitation? And what of Europe? – Interviewed by El Confidencial 12/20/2012):

Rapid, unregulated growth is usually built on the back of a financial sector bubble; also known as irrational exuberance. Credit expands fast, increasingly risky bets are placed and a portion of this is channelled into productive investments in industry (the real economy, as you put it). Then the bubble bursts, liquidity disappears and the real economy entered a vicious cycle, of having to pay back unsustainable debts through austerity that causes investment to plummet, debt-to-income ratios to remain prohibitively high and, alas, growth to turn increasingly negative. In this sense, the answer to your question is bleak: No, there is ...

I've resisted trying to speculate about some of the more subjective aspects of gun violence in the US political culture because of the very reason Charlie Pierce mentions in his The Night Before The President Came To Newtown Esquire Politics Blog 12/17/2012: "One pastor got on TV and blamed "the evil in the heart of man." (Unless you adopt his particular interpretation of monotheism, there is something inherent in you that might put seven bullets into a seven-year old.) This is convenient, because this is something against which we cannot legislate." (my emphasis)

A lot of the pet theories that Christian fundamentalists in particular like to throw out there on these all-too-frequent occasions of mass gun massacres are just that: a cover for the gun lobby to focus people's attention on anything and everything but better gun regulations.

So President and Social Security opponent Obama has gone there. After he let people hope for a weekend that the Grand Bargaining to cut benefits on Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid might at least be on hold until January, on Monday comes the news that he's agreed with House Speaker John Boehner on a "fiscal cliff" plan. (Jonathan Weisman, Obama's New Offer on Fiscal Crisis Could Lead to Deal New York Times 12/17/2012)

The details are overshadowed by the only thing in it that really matters: cuts to Social Security benefits, including current recipients, by adopting the "chained CPI" inflation-adjustment measure. There are various places to find explanations of "chained CPI," e.g., David Dayen, What Chained CPI Means, and Why a Cut in a Time of Inadequate Social Security Benefits Makes No Sense FDL News 12/17/2012; Mide Konczal, A Cost of Living Adjustment ...

A “longtime Fox News producer” has told DCReport that not only is Donald Trump unpopular at the network, but that “people are getting bolder about saying so.” However, I would argue that represents a growing chasm there more than an official change of purpose or direction, at least at this point.

The family of Seth Rich, the murdered DNC employee whom Fox News tried to frame as the leaker of DNC emails to Wikileaks (in order to get the Russians off the hook) has had its lawsuit against Fox News reinstated thanks to a federal appeals court that reversed a prior decision dismissing it.

Fox Business host and Trump toady extraordinaire Lou Dobbs visited the White House and, after a likely enthusiastic reception, concluded he knows more about its morale than the White House correspondents who actually work there.

Things got heated when Fox News host Neil Cavuto challenged White House trade adviser Peter Navarro for starting a new Trump offensive against international postal rates. Navarro acted as though he had a right to Cavuto’s support.

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